The lawsuit, rejected as "baseless" by the Port Authority, was filed last July against then-Lt. John Ryan while he was a supervisor at JFK. Ryan was named acting chief of the Port Authority police on May 18.

Plaintiff Otis Stone, a 43-year-old native of Jamaica now living on Long Island, ran Chef’s Orchid, a cafeteria-style restaurant that catered largely to West Indian and other airport workers in an area away from JFK’s passenger terminals.

The restaurant was shuttered after a fire in November 2010, when police found liquor on the premises and issued Stone summonses charging him with possession of alcohol under a false pretext. The suit said the summonses were dismissed in March 2010 in Queens Criminal Court.

"Plaintiff (Stone) was falsely arrested, falsely imprisoned/detained, illegally searched and seized, by officers from the PAPD, including Lt. Ryan," stated the suit, which is pending in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. A pretrial conference is scheduled for July 9.

Stone said Ryan revealed a racial bias with his nickname for the restaurant, "The ’Hood." He said Ryan had hounded him for two years prior to the shutdown, after Stone went over the officer’s head to obtain a permit to sell liquor on the premises for a private party.

Ryan, a 33-year police veteran, was named to fill the port authority’s vacant chief’s post in a move agency officials hoped would bring stability to a 1,700-member force roiled by allegations that a police captain took cell phone pictures of the sergeant’s exam last June. Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye ordered the captain fired this month, and three of his superiors have agreed to retire.

Tuesday, the agency issued a statement criticizing Stone’s suit as a "smear campaign" against Ryan that was "totally baseless."

"The Port Authority shut down Stone’s business because he violated his lease, fire and building codes, and put lives in jeopardy," the statement read. "Chief Ryan saved lives because he did his job well. His integrity is beyond reproach, which is why we chose this consummate professional as the head of our police department."